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GAINESVILLE, Fla.– One of the Florida Gators‘ top targets in the NCAA Transfer Portal is taking a visit with the program. Arkansas transfer guard Boogie Fland will visit the program on Monday, marking his first trip to Gainesville since entering the portal. On3’s Zach Abolverdi first broke the news before multiple outlets later confirmed Fland’s […]

Published

2 months ago

May 19, 2025

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GAINESVILLE, Fla.– One of the Florida Gators‘ top targets in the NCAA Transfer Portal is taking a visit with the program.

Arkansas transfer guard Boogie Fland will visit the program on Monday, marking his first trip to Gainesville since entering the portal. On3’s Zach Abolverdi first broke the news before multiple outlets later confirmed Fland’s visit.

Fland is rated as the No. 3 point guard and No. 10 overall player in the portal, according to On3.

The former NBA Draft entry has been linked with Florida on multiple occasions since announcing his intentions to leave Arkansas. UF senior writer Chris Harry previously reported that head coach Todd Golden met with a transfer portal target in New York City with Fland believed to be the player due to being from The Bronx.

Then, after Fland withdrew from the NBA Draft, Golden hinted that Florida was close to sealing the deal with a portal target, also believed to be Fland.

“We are still working on it,” he recently said on the ‘Run It Back’ podcast co-hosted by former Gator Chandler Parsons. “We are close to adding an impactful player that might help get us over the top.”

In his lone season with the Razorbacks, Fland averaged 13.5 points and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 34 percent from the field.

With the Gators losing four contributing guards in seniors Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard and outgoing transfer Denzel Aberdeen, a commitment from Fland is of the upmost importance to Florida as it looks to rebuild its guard rotation.

The Gators recently added transfers Xaivian Lee (Princeton) and AJ Brown (Ohio) to its roster while retaining reserve guard Isaiah Brown. Florida will also welcome high school recruits Alex Lloyd and CJ Ingram to the fold for the 2025-26 season.

NIL

Mikel Brown Jr. brings Louisville exactly what they’ve craved since Donovan Mitchell

March 19, 2017. 3,032 days. Louisville basketball is starving for a March Madness victory. This program changed after Donovan Mitchell declared for the NBA Draft, and while the program would have most likely won in 2019-2020, the fact is that Louisville has gone that long without an NCAA Tournament win. Now, with Mikel Brown Jr. […]

Published

17 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

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Now, with Mikel Brown Jr. joining the team, the 5-star phenom will bring hope and excitement back to the Cardinals fans, which is long overdue. From the moment Mitchell was drafted by the Utah Jazz, this program has taken a massive step backward. However, with Brown leading the program, the fan base has been rejuvenated, and he has reenergized the fans heading into next season.

The incoming freshman will face a massive challenge and a lot of pressure, but he is already the fans’ favorite player and hasn’t even played a minute for Kelsey yet. Brown has made it clear this offseason that he just wants to win, and the fans are all in on this historic commitment.

Related: Louisville basketball’s Mikel Brown Jr. proves he’s the best PG in college basketball

Mikel Brown Jr. was the exact spark Louisville basketball fans needed

Brown announced his commitment to Louisville in January 2025, completely transforming this program. The Cardinals had a successful season last year, as they made their first-ever ACC Championship game and earned more wins than in the previous three seasons combined. However, the excitement surrounding Brown has this program not just looking for a successful 2025-26 season, but it is making Louisville a massive landing spot for 2026 5-stars.

Brown recently earned his second gold medal with Team USA at the FIBA U19 World Cup. The 6-foot-5 point guard secured a spot on the FIBA U19 All-Star Five after leading Team USA in points, assists, 3-pointers, and efficiency.

He will make his debut for the Cardinals in early fall, in October, and the fans cannot wait for that day. Everyone has the date circled, and Louisville fans and Brown just have one thing in common: a National Championship.

Louisville has one of the most historic programs in college basketball, and it’s crazy that this program has gone 3,032 days without a win in March Madness and 4,472 days since winning the National Championship game. The program hopes Brown can be the next Donovan Mitchell and spark this program back to life, securing a couple of NCAA Tournament wins.

Mitchell guided Louisville to their last win back in 2017 when the Cardinals defeated Jacksonville State 78-63. Brown is projected to be a one-and-done superstar, as many media outlets have the 5-star being a top-five pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, meaning this upcoming season is Louisville’s best chance in a long time at a deep postseason run.

This program has been craving for a superstar, and after watching the FIBA World Cup, they definitely got one. Brown has the skills and mindset to be Kelsey’s No. 1 guy next season, and the fans finally have a 5-star they are excited for.

Related: Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. is putting the world on notice and the ACC is shivering
Related: Louisville basketball’s Mikel Brown Jr. has Kentucky fans admitting the hype is real

For all the latest on Louisville basketball’s offseason and recruiting, stay tuned.

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Princeton star Caden Pierce to redshirt, then enter portal

Jeff BorzelloJul 8, 2025, 02:08 PM ET Close Jeff Borzello is a basketball recruiting insider. He has joined ESPN in 2014. Open Extended Reactions Princeton star Caden Pierce, the 2023-24 Ivy League Player of the Year, plans to redshirt next season in order to finish his degree before entering the transfer portal and playing his […]

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25 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

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Jeff BorzelloJul 8, 2025, 02:08 PM ET
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Princeton star Caden Pierce, the 2023-24 Ivy League Player of the Year, plans to redshirt next season in order to finish his degree before entering the transfer portal and playing his final season elsewhere in 2026-27, he told ESPN.

Pierce informed coach Mitch Henderson of his decision last week. It’s the latest development in what has been a busy offseason for the program, which saw first-team All-Ivy League guard Xaivian Lee transfer to Florida and Henderson shuffle his coaching staff.

“This decision is nothing against Princeton,” Pierce said. “Princeton is forever my home, the school that believed in me coming out of high school. Everything we accomplished is far more than I could have ever imagined. What went into the decision: some of my teammates were leaving, two of our assistant coaches weren’t retained. And obviously the current landscape of college basketball is always sitting in the back of your mind. Those things kind of guided my decision.”

Pierce, who is represented by Priority Sports, plans to enter the portal as soon as he is able to in the fall in order to give himself a comfortable timeline for his recruitment.

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“It takes away the speed-dating process of the postseason transfer portal,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting because I’m not going to have a sense of what the complete roster makeup is going to be for the coming year. Then again, going through the transfer portal process, you never really know. It’s going to be more of a high school recruiting process, I’d like to think. Because I won’t be involved with the team, I can take some visits here and there, move at a slower pace, it won’t have to be so rushed.”

Pierce, a 6-foot-7 forward, started 89 games during his three seasons with the Tigers. He played a key role on Princeton’s Sweet 16 team as a freshman in 2023, winning Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and grabbing 16 rebounds in the team’s second-round NCAA tournament win over Missouri.

He broke out as a sophomore, averaging 16.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists en route to winning Ivy League Player of the Year. Among the 22 low- and mid-major conference players of the year in 2023-24, Pierce was the only one to return to the same school the following season. He had opportunities to transfer elsewhere following the campaign but opted to go back to the Tigers for his junior year.

Pierce battled injury issues last season, suffering an ankle injury in late December that resulted in two fully torn ligaments and two partially torn ligaments. He battled through the pain during Ivy League play, putting up 11.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists, being named second-team all-conference.

“I probably could have sat out and recovered a little bit more,” said Pierce, who added that he hasn’t done any serious basketball movements in the past two months in order to get his ankle healthy. “But I’m a competitor.”

While plenty of Ivy League standouts have left to play their final season elsewhere due to the conference’s longtime ban on graduate students participating in athletics, not many have voluntarily redshirted as a senior before leaving. Brown forward Nana Owusu-Anane underwent shoulder surgery last October before entering the transfer portal in December and ultimately landed at Grand Canyon this spring.

Pierce leaves later this month to represent Team USA on its U23 3×3 team but will then have several months without competitive basketball.

“I’m prepared for it to be difficult, but I won’t know how difficult until I’m in that situation,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time I took a year off from competitive basketball — probably before I started playing basketball. I hate that I have to step away from a place I love so much. Princeton’s my home.”

NIL

Why Ohio State has 9 roster fillers

Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams on cover of EA Sports College Football ’26 EA Sports chose Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Alabama’s Ryan Williams to be on the cover of College Football ’26. We talk to the athletes about what this moment means to them. EA Sports College Football 2026 features some fictional players due to […]

Published

37 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

Your Sports Nation

EA Sports College Football 2026 features some fictional players due to NIL contract opt-outs and late roster additions, including nine for Ohio State.
Topping Ohio State’s fictitious players is sophomore running back Jayson Ball, an elusive bruiser with an 87 rating.
Many other college teams are missing actual players, including a whopping 43 for the West Virginia Mountaineers.
The game can be edited to replace fictional players with names and likenesses of real ones.
Official roster updates could be issued after the game’s standard release on July 10.

Who are the nine mysterious players on Ohio State’s roster for EA Sports College Football 2026, and what did the game do with 11 incoming Buckeyes freshmen?

Fans of OSU have a wealth of talent in the game, including sophomore receiver Jeremiah Smith (98 overall rating) and safety Caleb Downs (96 overall rating) adorning the cover, but those who have secured the game’s early deluxe edition are a little baffled by a running back named Jayson Ball, a sophomore from Cleveland with an 87 overall rating as an elusive bruiser.

Well, he’s fictitious along with eight other video Buckeyes whose ratings aren’t close to Ball’s. Meanwhile, 11 members of OSU’s incoming class are missing, including five-star cornerback Devin Sanchez and running backs Anthony Rogers and Isaiah West.

How did this happen?

The answer is multi-pronged, including a likelihood that a sizable number of players didn’t opt into EA Sports’ name, image and likeness contract despite the company increasing its NIL payout from $600 plus a deluxe edition of the game in 2025 to $1,500 plus a deluxe edition in 2026.

Other actual players who have been excluded might have committed to a school late in the recruiting process or transferred too late via the portal for inclusion in the 2026 game’s opening rosters.

Not having those players creates voids within an 85-man roster, and that’s when Jayson Ball walks or rolls into Ryan Day’s virtual office via programming magic.

Speaking of Day, he’s one of more than 300 actual coaches whose likenesses are now included in the game as a series first. As for missing and made-up players, there are likely more than you may think with 136 Football Bowl Division programs in the game.

That is a lot of roster holes to fill, and Ohio State’s nine pretend players might not be a lot comparatively. It’s a pittance compared to West Virginia, which has 43 actual players who aren’t included. That’s half of the Mountaineers’ roster comprised by fillers.

The good news for purists is the game’s editing function.

Those with time to edit can transform fictitious players into actual players by adjusting names, heights, weights, positions, ratings, and other traits. Once the game’s standard version is released July 10, EA Sports programmers are expected to issue update patches at some point to correct rosters.

In the meantime, Buckeyes fans can form a strong 1-2 punch in their backfield with their new elusive bruiser, Jayson Ball, and Bo Jackson, an actual OSU player not related to the former Auburn/NFL/MLB superstar of the same name.

Got all that?

Good, now go hit the video gridiron.

Dispatch reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social

Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts

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Dick Vitale ranks Top 5 winners of Transfer Portal ahead of 2025 College Basketball Season

The wild, wild west that is known as the NCAA Transfer Portal has finally settled. Teams and rosters for the 2025-26 college basketball season are finally set, with some standing taller than others. ESPN college basketball analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Dick Vitale took a stab at ranking the top five winners of the […]

Published

38 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The wild, wild west that is known as the NCAA Transfer Portal has finally settled.

Teams and rosters for the 2025-26 college basketball season are finally set, with some standing taller than others. ESPN college basketball analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Dick Vitale took a stab at ranking the top five winners of the portal ahead of the season.

His full rankings are below baby! Including some PTPers!

Transfer Class: SG Ian Jackson (North Carolina), PF Bryce Hopkins (Providence), SF Dillon Mitchell (Cincinnati), SG Joson Sanon (Arizona State), PG Dylan Darling (Idaho State), SG Oziyah Sellers (Stanford), C Handje Tamba (Milligan University)

Rick Pitino and the Red Storm swung big in the Transfer Portal, hauling in two legit All-league players in North Carolina guard Ian Jackson (No. 10 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) and Providence guard Bryce Hopkins (No. 20 in On3’s Transfer Rankings). A year removed from being outed in the Round of 32 by Arkansas, Pitino has certainly loaded up to make his first run to the Final Four since 2013. St. Johns‘ Transfer Portal class is ranked No. 11 by On3.

© Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Transfer Class: PF Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State), SF Mo Dioubate (Alabama), PG Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), G Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), SF Kam Williams (Tulane), C Reece Potter (Miami OH)

Mark Pope‘s first year at Kentucky was defined by the Transfer Portal, and so will his second year. Arizona State star power forward Jayden Quaintance (No. 4 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) will finally make his way to Lexington after originally committing in high school, along with former Alabama glue guy Mouhamed Dioubate (No. 61 in On3’s Transfer Rankings), reigning National Champion Denzel Aberdeen (No. 91 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) and shifty point guard Jaland Lowe (No. 52 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) from Pitt. Kentucky’s Transfer Portal class is ranked No. 2 by On3.

Transfer Class: PF Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB), C Aday Mara (UCLA), PF Morez Johnson (Illinois), PG Elliot Cadeau (North Carolina)

Michigan was truly one of the biggest winners of the Portal cycle when UAB star forward Yaxel Lendeborg, who was No. 1 in On3’s Transfer Rankings, decided to withdraw from the NBA Draft and attend college. Along with two other legit collegiate stars with NCAA Tournament experience in Illinois‘ Morez Johnson (No. 40 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) and North Carolina‘s Elliot Cadeau (No. 63 in On3’s Transfer Rankings), the Wolverines are seeking their first Final Four run since 2018. Michigan’s Transfer Portal class is ranked No. 4 by On3.

Transfer Class: PG Boogie Fland (Arkansas), PG Xaivian Lee (Princeton), SG AJ Brown (Ohio)

Fresh off a National Championship last season, Todd Golden and Florida rebuilt in a major way. The Gators brought in star Arkansas point guard Boogie Fland (No. 7 in On3’s Transfer Rankings), along with two other complimentary pieces in Princeton‘s Xaivian Lee (No. 39 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) and Ohio‘s AJ Brown (No. 84 in On3’s Transfer Rankings). They’re seeking yet another SEC crown along with their first two-peat since 2006-07. Florida’s Transfer Portal class is ranked No. 38 by On3.

© Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Transfer Class: PG Desmond Claude (USC), SG Wesley Yates (USC), PF Jacob Ognacevic (Lipscomb), SF Bryson Tucker (Indiana), PG Quimari Peterson (ETSU), C Lathan Sommerville (Rutgers), PF Christian Nitu (Florida State)

When you talk about completely rebuilding a team, Washington‘s haul is a great example. Head coach Danny Sprinkle brought in seven new players, led by former USC stars Desmond Claude (No. 29 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) and Wesley Yates (No. 27 in On3’s Transfer Rankings). Along with some other solid pieces in former ETSU forward Quimari Peterson (No. 101 in On3’s Transfer Rankings) and former Indiana forward Bryson Tucker (No. 144 in On3’s Transfer Rankings), the Huskies are seeking their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2019. Washingtons Transfer Portal class is ranked No. 3 by On3.

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NCAA Adds Extra Game to College Basketball Regular Season Starting 2026

Starting in 2026-27, college basketball teams can play 32 regular-season games instead of 31. The NCAA Division I Council approved this change. Teams won’t face restrictions tied to multi-team events anymore. “Multiple high-major coaches told CBS Sports in recent months that they are actively pursuing and hoping to play a nonconference game in the midst […]

Published

59 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Starting in 2026-27, college basketball teams can play 32 regular-season games instead of 31. The NCAA Division I Council approved this change.

Teams won’t face restrictions tied to multi-team events anymore. “Multiple high-major coaches told CBS Sports in recent months that they are actively pursuing and hoping to play a nonconference game in the midst of the conference season moving forward, finding benefits in advance of postseason play in March,” said Matt Norlander per USA Today.

Current rules let teams pick between two options: 28 games plus three MTE games, or 29 games with two MTE games. The updated system gives teams freedom to schedule 32 games any way they want.

Big changes are coming to the ACC. They’re cutting conference games to 18 from 20 next season. Non-conference games will jump from 11 to 13, pushing for more big matchups outside the conference.

What’s driving these changes? The NCAA wants simpler rules. Conference shifts pushed for updates, too. Schools can still choose to play fewer games if they want.

NIL deals might turn MTEs into bigger events with four games each. Look at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas: they’re already doing three games per team.

More home games mean more money for schools. Mid-season games against non-conference teams could sharpen skills before March.

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Kentucky basketball overall rating in EA Sports College Basketball

The NIL era of college sports has changed a lot of things, some of which are positive, and others are more negative. One of the positive changes that has come with the NIL era has been the return of the EA Sports video games, as the college football game made its return last year. Now, […]

Published

1 hour ago

July 8, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Now, it was announced that the college basketball video game is set to make its return. One report makes it sound like it could be a few years before this game is back on the shelves, but EA Sports announced that it is coming.

After the announcement that this game was coming back, it felt like a good time to predict what each Kentucky player’s overall rating would be if this game was making its return this season.

Otega Oweh: 94 Overall
Jayden Quaintance: 90 Overall
Jaland Lowe: 85 Overall
Brandon Garrison: 84 Overall
Mo Dioubate: 84 Overall
Dnezel Aberdeen 83 Overall
Jasper Johnson: 82 Overall
Kam Williams: 82 Overall
Collin Chandler: 80 Overall
Malachi Moreno: 80 Overall
Andrija Jelavic: 79 Overall
Trent Noah: 79 Overall
Braydon Hawthorne: 77 Overall
Reece Pooter: 73 Overall

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